Background: Most of my life, I’ve been a poor graduate student or underpaid staffer at a university. Ramen was never a staple for me because I didn’t like the flavor packets that came with the noodles. It wasn’t until high-quality ramen shops came to my town in the early to mid aughts that I realized that ramen wasn’t just freeze dried noodles and packets loaded with sodium and trace amounts of dried vegetables. High quality tonkotsu ramen is difficult and time-consuming to make, and I respect a good bowl of ramen. This is not that and it is why I don’t call it “ramen.” This is “I have three minutes to get dinner on the table and it’s the end of the month” soup made with ramen noodles. I stash the flavor packets away in the event of an apocalypse, like ya do, and I do these moves instead for the broth:

1. Get some good quality ramen noodles. I use organic, vegan, non-GMO noodles. The noodles themselves only have sea salt and organic wheat flour.
2. Get an white onion, a bunch of garlic cloves (raw are fine), a thumb of ginger, two giant handfuls of green onions or Wild Onions, and some mushrooms. Reserve the green tops of the onions and chop everything else as rough or fine as you want.
3. Keep Vegetable Stock or Slower-But-Still-Quick Chicken Stock on hand.
4. If you did, in fact, freeze the trim from your Pork Tenderloin in Soy Sauce, add it to the stock and bring to a boil. If you did not freeze the trim, consider trimming, cooking, and serving a Pork Tenderloin in Soy Sauce along with these moves. Throw the trim in the stock as you go.
5. Start a tea kettle of water boiling and bring a small amount of water to a boil in a pan that fits the amount of ramen you are making. Add the tea kettle water to the boiling water in the pot. Repeat the tea kettle process until you have enough boiling water to just barely cover the noodles.
6. Add the noodles to the water.
7. Cook the noodles until they are just tender enough to gather together in a spider strainer.
8. Strain the broth into a pitcher for serving.
9. Put the broth and noodles on the table with any or all the following condiments: chopped green onion tops, All Purpose Crunchy Vegan Topping (with mod no. 1), miso, soft boiled eggs, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, Dry Slaw (with mod no. 3), and something spicy like fresh peppers, toasted chilies, or your favorite chili sauce.

Why It Works

1. These work fine. Better might be high-quality packaged “fresh noodles” if you can find them.
2. Really, any combination of alliums and ginger will be fine. Work with what you’ve got, and tailor what you have on hand over time depending on what you like and what’s available.
3. Pork stock would work even better, if you have it. If I’m being honest, most of my stock is a combination of whatever meat and bones I’ve been saving from the past few weeks.
4. You could go a step further if you have frozen trim or ground pork and make meatballs and throw them in the stock to cook.
5. I’m still convinced this method boils water faster and I still haven’t done a scientific test to determine the truth.
6. Set a timer for two minutes.
7. This is going to go fast.
8. This is so you can easily pour the amount you want over your noodles.
9. Also, this is just the beginnings of suggestions using things that I tend to have on hand. You know what you like in ramen.

Mods:

1. Save real leftover tonkotsu ramen broth in the freezer when you order takeout ramen. You can use it in this move to stretch the flavor and use up your stock.
2. Serve with shredded baby bok choy, nappa cabbage, and arugula.
3. Serve with a runny fried egg on top instead of soft boiled eggs.

Background: While it’s mostly not local, when it’s in season, I like asparagus because it has few calories and is full of fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins. Also, it’s super-easy to cook. It can be expensive so here’s what I like to serve it and stretch it:

1. Get a bunch or two of asparagus.
2. Get some butter, salt, and pepper.
3. Cut the ends off the asparagus about 2 inches or so from the cut ends.
4. Chop the woody stem ends up in small pieces, put in a small pot, and melt a chunk of butter slowly with the stems.
5. Take the rest of the asparagus and put on a plate with a splash of water and microwave for 4 minutes.
6. Test for tenderness and microwave more if necessary. Discard any leftover steaming water (or drink it).
7. When they are the consistency you like, toss them in a little of the asparagus butter you made.
8. Salt and pepper to taste.
9. If there is asparagus left chop it up and put in the butter with the woody stems and enough cold stock to cover the asparagus.
10. Refrigerate and use the leftover in eggs or soup.

Why It Works.

1. The thicker it is, the harder it is to overcook.
2. As always, I use Kosher salt and medium-coarse black pepper. Other spices will work here, too.
3. If you eat asparagus already, you probably know how far down you like to go.
4. You are infusing the butter with asparagus flavor, extracting nutrients, and not wasting the ends.
5. I have a couple asparagus-shaped dishes that I like to use. They are long, shallow ceramic plates and platters that will hold the water, can be easily drained with the asparagus in them, will allow some gentle tossing of the asparagus for butter and seasoning, and can go from prep table to microwave to serving table.
6. There’s no right or wrong tenderness. Do what you like. It can get a little mushy if you really nuke it though.
7. You can use a spoon or small ladle to get the amount you want. You can use the same dish as the one you microwaved it on.
8. You should be able to kind of roll the asparagus around in the serving dish while you salt and pepper it.
9. This will preserve the asparagus because it will stay submerged under the stock. You can use chicken, beef, or veg stock here.
10. In the fridge, the butter will rise to the top and chill as a solid disc. You can then easily adjust the amount of butter when re-serving. Take the whole disc off the top in one piece and then make asparagus soup, cream of asparagus soup, or toss the asparagus in eggs and cook in the butter for a great breakfast.

Mods:

1. Add goat cheese at serving time.
2. Add pine nuts or silvered, toasted almonds at serving time.
3. Add goat cheese in step 10 if you go with eggs for the leftovers.

Background: I really want to like sweet potatoes. In fry form they are ok. When my kids were really little, we’d feed them roasted cubes of sweet potatoes. Those were also just ok. But if we’re being honest, they aren’t delicious like white or yellow potatoes because they don’t get golden brown. Some people claim there are tricks to make them crispy, but they are never going to be golden brown and delicious. I’ve tried sweet potato pancakes and sweet potato crêpes. I used to make these green apple, sweet potato tarts with bleu cheese. All only ever just fine. Why do I keep trying to fall in love with sweet potatoes? Because of fantasies created by marketing. It’s easy to imagine a life where sweet potatoes replace regular potatoes as a healthy alternative in all our favorite sides: fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, etc. But that’s not, I don’t think, how nutrition works. (I’m no nutritionist.) If you fry them, load them down with butter and salt and sour cream, they might give you different nutrients, but they aren’t going to be “healthy.” Also what does “healthy” even mean? I’m not sure there’s a single meaning of “healthy.” I do think variety is important though, in both meal planning and in terms of getting lots of different nutrients. So I aim for variety in color, preparation, presentation, and flavor profile. Here’s a move that kind of worked for my family with sweet potatoes, which haven’t been a hit since the tiny roasted cube pick-ups era.

1. Get a sweet potato or two, some salt, some butter, some cheese, and some All-Purpose Crunchy Vegan Topping.
2. Steam them in a microwave-safe bowl or plate with a little water.
3. Mash them with a potato masher and add butter while they are hot.
4. Salt to taste.
5. Cover with grated cheese of your choice and set aside until the rest of dinner is ready.
6. When ready to serve, microwave again to warm up and melt the cheese.
7. Top with All-Purpose Crunchy Vegan Topping.

Why It Works

1. Peel the potato(s) and grate the cheese of your choice. I used cojack because it matched the color of the sweet potato. The sweet potato can no longer hide behind a veneer of healthiness because this dish is covered in a veneer of cheese.
2. For my microwave this took three rounds of 6 minutes and I turned them with a fork in between each round.
3. If you are watching your fat or you are vegan, you could try adding a bit of vegetable stock instead.
4. You could add more spices here to match or compliment the flavor profile of your dish.
5. I was going for orange because of aesthetics (of the 10-and-under set, not my own). I would let flavor be your guide here unless your family is full of flavor antagonists.
6. This works because you can make it ahead of time and heat it up when you are ready to serve.
7. This adds more flavor, more crunch, and more protein.

Mods:

1. Alternately, you could put it in cast iron and broil if you wanted to brown the cheese instead of just melting it.
2. You could swap out the butter for vegetable stock and lose the cheese and increase the crunchy topping and you’d have a vegan side dish.
3. Use bleu cheese and add your favorite vinegar-based cayenne pepper sauce when you add the butter to take it in the direction of Buffalo Wings. Serve with a chicken cutlet and see if anyone makes the connection.
4. Omit the cheese and butter and use an Asian-style chili sauce during the mashing process. Double down on the All-Purpose Crunchy Vegan Topping and you have a vegan version bursting with flavor and heat.

Background: My wife used to not like goat cheese or the band Spoon. Then, more than a decade into our relationship, she decided she liked both. She reminds me of this fact any time I accuse her of being, let’s just say, “too set in her ways.” Anytime I put goat cheese on anything, I hum “That’s the way we get by / To way we get by / And that’s the way we get by / To way we get by” and consider the fact that people can change. The night after you do the Quail move, if you have leftovers, do this move.

1. Pick all the leftover quail off the bones. Save bones, gristly bits, and skin for stock.
2. Get some goat cheese.
3. Get some greens from the garden or store.
4. Get a head of romaine lettuce.
5. Get some of those Croutons you made.
6. Do The Move for All Salad Dressings but add a little bit of berry something. It could be actual berries. It could be jam. It could be pomegranate juice.
7. Add the quail, greens, romaine and croutons to a bowl and toss everything a bit.
8. Add the goat cheese in chunks to the dressing. Break up the chunks with a fork until they are the size you want.
9. Just before service, add the dressing and toss the salad with salad tongs.

Why It Works

1. I reserve the juices from roasting the quail, which, you will remember, has a lot of butter. I pick the quail at the end of dinner and cover the quail with these juices before I store them in the fridge. When everything is chilled, the quail is submerged in juices and a hard layer of butter has formed on top like nature’s Tupperware lid. Pick the quail out and save the butter and juices with the skin, bones and gristle for stock.
2. For this salad, I used some goat cheese that came covered in blueberries. (I don’t usually do this, because I want the versatility to go in any direction. But one time, I had this salad in mind and thought it would work well and it did.)
3. Arugula works well, as does Swiss and rainbow chard.
4. The romaine give the salad body and crunch. I find that salads with soft cheeses need a lettuce with a strong spine to stand up to them in a salad.
5. What do you mean you “didn’t make croutons”? What are you even doing with your stale bread then?
6. Sometimes my berry component comes from the ones on the cheese, other times they are the ones my kids reject because they have a weird divot in them or sometimes it’s just jam or jelly because that’s what I have.
7. You aren’t dressing it yet because the goat cheese and the dressing will make the croutons soggy and the greens wilted.
8. Goat cheese will cling to things and clump up in a salad. You can just keep tossing it better, but then you can over toss it and bruise the greens. Keeping the goat cheese chunks suspended in the oil of the dressing will help you get an even crumble and it will help distribute them throughout the salad instead of clumping up in a big wad. Also, the combination of the creamy goat cheese and the acidic dressing should satisfy both the vinaigrette camp and the creamy dressing camp.
9. This is a salad that you want to toss just right: enough to get the goat cheese and quail and berries and croutons evenly distributed, but not so much that it becomes a soggy mess.

Mods:

1. Add nuts or seeds to the mix. Pecans and sunflower seeds (or a mix of both to cut the cost) will work well.
2. If you don’t have quail, duck leg meat would work.
3. If you don’t have duck, chicken leg meat would work.
4. If you don’t have chicken leg meat, increase the nuts and seeds.

Background: I go through a Waldorf Salad phase every five years or so. Usually it happens in late fall or winter when I have apples, celery, and pecans on hand a lot. These days, every time my kids don’t eat a plate of sliced apples, I think of making a Waldorf Salad. (Not-Pro tip: if the apples have started to oxidize because they’ve been left out too long, take a vegetable peeler and peel the thinnest outer layer from the apple slices and they are ready to go again.) It’s not the classic version, but here are my moves.

1. Get some green or red seedless grapes, apples (your choice), pecans, celery, and lemon juice.
2. Get your favorite fresh herbs and chiffonade or chop them.
3. Chop everything except the herbs to a uniform size and add everything to a bowl.
4. Make some Handmixer Mayo.
5. Toss the salad with the mayo and a squeeze of lemon juice.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.

Why It Works

1. If I go red with the grapes, I like to go green with the apples and vice versa.
2. Tarragon or fennel are great choices.
3. I usually start by halving the grapes. Anything more than halving them ruins their structural integrity. I base the size of everything else on the half grapes.
4. You could also use Pecan Aioli or just buy some Dukes.
5. The mayo will keep the fruit from oxidizing and the lemon juice cuts the richness of the mayo.
6. Any dry spices can be added here, too.

Mods:

1. The mods are endless. I like to mod it based on what I’m serving it with. Sautéed chicken breasts work well.
2. Add a bit of Dijon to the mayo.
3. Serve on endive lettuce leaves.

Background: There’s a place in my neighborhood that serves an Austin Dog. It’s a very very good hot dog. However, it’s the only so-called Austin Dog I’ve heard of. There are several other good dogs in town, too. But they don’t coalesce into a civic style of hot dog. Before they do, I’d like to humbly submit a suggestion for an Austin Style Hot Dog, not to be confused with the very good Austin Dog that predates it. Here are the moves I use to make it at home:

1. Get an all-beef Texas hot dog.
2. Get a bolillo roll.
3. Make some Black Beans and mash them with a fork.
4. Make some Guac.
5. Make some Sauerkraut and Escabeche and chop them fine with a pickled cucumber to make a relish.
6. Add Pico to the sauce for Mac ‘n’ Cheese to make a quick queso.
7. Assemble together as follows: black beans schmeared on one side of the toasted bolillo; guacamole schmeared on the other side of the bolillo; dot dog goes in the middle, obviously; top with queso; finish with escabeche relish.

Why It Works

1. It’s Texas. It has to be all beef. It has to be local. Look at the size of the bolillo. It should also be big.
2. The bolillo roll is more substantial than a hot dog bun. It’s also less prone to getting soggy, which is important when you have heavy spreads like beans and guacamole. It’s also French bread served in Mexico and Texas. So you’ve got several of the cultures that have come together in the area.
3. Black beans are popular in Austin but don’t scream Tex-Mex like refried beans (not that there’s anything wrong with screaming Tex-Mex). They are also a staple of vegetarian food, which is going to be important in the mods.
4. Guac might be the most unifying food in Austin. Who doesn’t love guac even when it’s extra.
5. The Sauerkraut is a nod to the generations of Germans who settled in Central Texas. They didn’t invent fermented cabbage, but everyone knows Frankfurters and sauerkraut go together. The escabeche is a nod to a Mexican tradition of pickling. The pickled cucumber has become naturalized on a hot dog. Mix all three and you get an amazing relish. Also, because of the variability of sauerkraut techniques, escabeche recipes, and pickle styles, Austin-style relish could be one thing containing an infinite number of possibilities. Every hot dog place could have their take on this relish.
6. Topping the dog with queso in Austin is a no-brainer. It was everything I could do to keep myself from suggesting that the Austin Style Dog have corn chips crumbled on top.
7. Because you are assembling on a bolillo, it’s going to be important to cover a lot of surface area with beans, guac, and queso and be liberal with the relish. Also, again, the hot dog should be big.

Mods:

1. Make a vegetarian version by swapping out the hot dog with some vegan dog. It won’t be very Texasy, but it will still be Austiny.
2. Most of the mods should come from the various recipes for black beans, guac, escabeche, sauerkraut, pickle relish, pico and queso.
3. Crumble corn chips on top.

Caveat: I have no business suggesting any of this. I’m not a native Austinite. I’m not a native Texan. I belong to none of the cultures that gave any of the components to this dog. I’m a Midwesterner. However, I have been a keen observer of the ways of Austin since 2002 or so. That should count for something. Also read the history of the Hawaiian pizza or Cincinnati chili or really dig back far enough in any classic dish and you will find that, well, food moves.